Electronic assemblies, including high power dissipating integrated circuits, generate heat during operation. It is typically necessary to dissipate this heat or, more accurately, transfer the thermal energy away from the electronic assembly to ensure that the electronic assembly will not overheat and thus fail due to degradation of some or all of the circuits in the assembly. In some applications, mere thermal radiation and component-induced convection of free-standing air may be used to effectively “cool” the electronic assembly. Still further, structures such as heat sinks may be used to conduct the thermal energy away from the electronic assemblies.
However, some electronic assemblies are of such a design and/or some electronic assemblies are utilized in close proximately to other electronic assemblies and/or in ambient environments such that it is not possible to dissipate or otherwise transfer sufficient amounts of thermal energy away from the electronic assembly to ensure that the electronic assembly will not overheat during use without utilizing an air stream that is directed over the electronic assembly to obtain convective heat transfer of thermal energy away from the electronic assembly into the air stream. For example, compact main frame computers often utilize cooling fans to draw air into the interior of the computer where the electronic components are housed. Cooling fans or other methods of inducing air flow over electronic components are often used to cool electronic assemblies utilized on commercial and/or military aircraft. In this regard, a typical modem commercial aircraft has a tremendous amount of highly sophisticated electronic components within, for example, the fuselage of the aircraft. Because space is limited on an aircraft, these components are typically bunched together such that a cooling air stream/air flow is needed to cool the electronic assemblies to ensure that they do not overheat in the ambient temperatures to which they are exposed. (Interior portions of an aircraft fuselage may become very hot, especially when sitting in the sun on a runway in the southern latitudes.)